Document 6503606

How to Make a Cheese Press
March 18, 2009
Bigfork’s Essential Stuff Newsletter -- Bringing People Together
A Publication of the Essential Stuff Project, Bigfork, Montana
How to Make a Cheese Press
A press is used to press cheese curd tightly together, especially important to make a hard,
waxed cheese. A press is basically a container with heavy weight applied. You can make one
with an empty coffee can: cut out both ends and cut a wood follower to fit the opening. Small
red bricks can be wrapped in foil and used for weights. (http://www.i4at.org/countrylife/cheese.html).
Here’s a press you can buy, ready-to-assemble, at http://schmidling.com/press.htm, but as you
can see, they provide instructions to make it for home use (allowed per the website, as long as
you don’t make them to sell, as they are protected by copyright).
This press is from the Justinsomnia blog
(http://justinsomnia.org/2009/02/how-to-build-a-cheese-press/).
It’s a rather simple construction, similar to the one above. However, his very first press was much more last-minute, and as he
says, “rickety,” as you can see (right):
ESP by chaug (cat@essentialstuff.org)!
1 of 3!
March 18, 2009
How to Make a Cheese Press
So he started sketching ideas, assembling the parts needed:
Then began construction to create his finished product.
ESP by chaug (cat@essentialstuff.org)!
2 of 3!
March 18, 2009
How to Make a Cheese Press
And here’s a sketch Fran made of her homemade press for cheese or tofu:
ESP by chaug (cat@essentialstuff.org)!
3 of 3!
March 18, 2009